Chengdu Sidewalks

To walk... You think you know but you have no idea. Have you ever walked out on a wet deck in flip-flops? The kind that is really new and has just been sealed? The slippery kind where you could basically just slide right across it? Where your flip-flop, because it has so little tread, just wants to slip out from under you and fly off your foot, leaving you hopping on this slip and slide of death in your flip-flop, hoping for the best but knowing your butt is about to land 'kerplunk,' right onto that slippery nightmare of pain? No? Okay, well I have, and as a sometimes clumsy person, it isn't fun. In fact, it's dangerous. Yet on a deck in the US there are usually railings or furniture pieces of some sort to grab a hold of for steadying.

Now imagine you are on that slippery deck, only is marble. Wet marble. You are in any type of shoe imaginable. It doesn't matter. Tread be damned. You are going to slide. You are going to slide until your foot hits the grooved ridges magically appearing in nine inch spaces from the slippery and ungrooved other nine inch space behind/flanking/in front of it. That is what it's like to walk on the sidewalk in China.

We call them 'Suicide Sidewalks,' because no matter how slowly or how carefully you place each step, the sliding from one grooved pavement piece to the next is inevitable at some point. Even worse, on most campuses, there are brick sidewalks worn down over time to a slick surface where in summer, moss and algae and mold grow, the Chengdu heat and humidity mixing in the perfect storm of slippery danger. Most Chinese people tell you to just, "walk in street. That safer."

Yes, walking in China can be hazardous and sometimes walking in the street can be safer than walking on the sidewalk. Mix in the fact that liability laws here are apparently nonexistent, so canals have no barriers, stairs often lack hand rails, and nobody is required to provide unslick walking surfaces, it can sometimes feel like an obstacle course in the rain. Yet this got me thinking. Without such strict liability laws, individuals are left with only one option when it comes to their own safety: pay attention. It is nobody's fault but your own if you can't walk properly. Nobody is responsible for salting ice that Mother Nature laid down on the ground. If you fall on someone else's property, get up, shake it off, and next time stay home if it's icy and order delivery instead of take-out.

As a former insurance agent, I've seen some interesting and ridiculous liability claims. Claims where people claim it is an establishment or business or individual's responsibility to basically combat Mother Nature and make an "inside" environment for their outside, essentially eliminating any natural elements just in case a person wants to walk in their door. Which has made our lawyers fat...and our personal responsibility nonexistent. It's always someone else's fault when we get hurt, not our own. We are not responsible for our fall by leaving our houses and entering the world. It's someone else's for not making that experience of leaving the house come with bumpers and handrails. Personal responsibility/culpability starts on this low level of simply being responsible for one's own safety while walking.

When Guiliani took over being Mayor in NYC he did one very small thing to combat crime. He ordered the local police force to start giving out jay walking tickets. I'm sure there was a more elaborate plan, but that was the basic source of crime reduction. Jay walking fines. If you can't even walk across a street at designated intersections at pre-determined times (it's blaringly obvious by the visual and audio aide) without getting a fine, what happens if you do something major? Basically, the idea is: personal responsibility starts small.

I realize that this is a little bit of a leap when it comes to hand rails and guard rails and slippery "slopes" if you will, but essentially, this is how I see Western China's "Suicide Sidewalks." You, as an individual, are responsible for being more careful when it rains. Step lightly. Pay attention. Follow the basic human rules for survival in the society in which you live. Don't pass the buck and don't escalate. It is so simple really. If you end up in a creek, it's your own fault.